FIG. 1 exemplarily describes a storage array 100 with a conventional architecture, and most storage devices in markets use such an architecture, which is typical.
Specifically, the storage array 100 shown in FIG. 1 is a typical storage array of multiple controllers, where the storage array 100 includes an interconnect exchange network 101 and multiple controllers 105 (105-1, 105-2, . . . , 105-n), and the foregoing multiple controllers 105 (105-1, 105-2, . . . , 105-n) are connected by using the interconnection exchange network 101. The controllers each are configured with processors (CPU) (103-1, 103-2, . . . , 103-n) and front-end and back-end interfaces according to a service requirement. Typically, for example, a Fibre Channel FC interface or an Internet small computer system interface iSCSI (102-1, 102-2, . . . , 102-n) is used as a front-end interface to connect to a host device (a peripheral). Typically, for example, a serial attached SCSI (SAS) interface is used as a back-end interface to connect to a storage medium, where the storage medium may be, for example, an HDD or an SSD.
In the architecture shown in FIG. 1, when an operation corresponding to a data request received by a front-end interface chip 102-1 in a controller 1 is performed on an HDD/SSD connected to a controller 2, the controller 1 needs to forward the received data request to the controller 2 by using a network. In such a running manner, a delay of data transmission is not only increased, but also load on the controller 1 is increased, thereby reducing a processing capability of the whole system.
Likewise, in this architecture, once a controller becomes faulty, a system host needs to perform storage access in manners of, for example, using a redundant interface channel or cooperating multipath software.